FA News: 10/18/2016

We’ve received a number of troubling reports from faculty regarding sabbaticals. The application process for sabbaticals is outlined in the current contract (section 15.03), and is essentially unchanged in the working draft of the contract under negotiation. We have been told that faculty are being required, if they are to apply for sabbaticals, either to identify other colleagues willing to cover their courses during their leave (with no compensation) or to themselves agree to teach unpaid overloads before or after their sabbaticals. It appears that such requests are particularly prevalent in the case of faculty applying for one-semester sabbaticals, which are generally more expensive for the university, as faculty are paid their full salaries, and thus no money is freed up to cover their teaching.

No requirement of this sort is sanctioned by the contract or university policy. If you have been required to do either of these things in order to apply for a sabbatical, please get in touch. This year’s deadline for applications has passed, but if you’ve been misinformed about the rules by a supervisor it may not be too late for a remedy.

MAP grant postcard campaign

Fund Our Future Illinois, a coalition of unions and other like-minded groups, is gathering postcards to send to state legislators to push for MAP grant funding during the lame duck session after the election. FA members will be staffing tables in the Student Center Wednesday and Thursday. So if you’re in the building, stop by and fill out postcards to send to your State Representative and Senator. If you’d like cards for yourself and/or to distribute to others, drop me a line–I’d be happy to get you some.